World's Largest Man-Made Excavation, world record near Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah, United States--The
Bingham Canyon Mine, also known as
Kennecott Copper Mine, owned by Rio Tinto Group, is an open-pit mining operation extracting a large porphyry copper deposit southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah, in the Oquirrh Mountains; the mine has resulted in the creation of a pit over 0.75 miles (1,210 m) deep, 2.5 miles (4 km) wide, and covering 1,900 acres (3.0 sq mi; 770 ha; 7.7 km2), which sets the world record for being the
World's Largest Man-Made Excavation, according to the WORLD RECORD ACADEMY.
"The Bingham Canyon Mine, more commonly known as Kennecott Copper Mine among locals, is an open-pit mining operation extracting a large porphyry copper deposit southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah, in the Oquirrh Mountains.
"The mine is the largest man-made excavation, and deepest open-pit mine in the world, which is considered to have produced more copper than any other mine in history – more than 19,000,000 short tons (17,000,000 long tons; 17,000,000 t). The mine is owned by Rio Tinto Group, a British-Australian multinational corporation.
"The mine has been in production since 1906, and has resulted in the creation of a pit over 0.75 miles (1,210 m) deep, 2.5 miles (4 km) wide, and covering 1,900 acres (3.0 sq mi; 770 ha; 7.7 km2). It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966 under the name Bingham Canyon Open Pit Copper Mine." (Wikipedia)
"Over 100 years old, the world's largest copper mine includes a 2.5-mile-wide pit in the Oquirrh Mountains southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah," the Popular Mechanics says.
"Considered the largest man-made excavation, the mine dips nearly three-quarters of a mile down and covers 1,900 acres. First started in 1906, the mine is still open, but that hasn't kept it from being named a National Historic Landmark with a visitor center for folks who want to come and gawk."
"The Bingham Canyon open-pit copper mine is the largest man-made excavation on earth, a hole nearly three miles wide and nearly four thousand feet deep," the Esquire says.
"On a typical day, half a million tons of rock are dynamited, dug up, trucked out, crushed, concentrated, smelted, and finally refined into roughly eight hundred tons of pure copper. That meets about 1 percent of global demand.
"And there are plans to extend the life of Bingham Canyon for decades by pushing its operations underground. Instead of making the pit wider and deeper, operators will be tunneling beneath the ore and pulling it out from below—in blocks half a mile long on a side."
"Sixty million years ago, a gigantic explosion from within the earth blasted through the area's sedimentary layers to the surface. The incoming flow of magma filled the cracks and fissures in the stone and formed into a plug of molten rock. Beginning in 1848, the resultant metallic veins were mined for gold, silver, copper, and molybdenite," the
Wikipedia says.
"Investments in the mine by the Guggenheim family contributed to the early growth of the mine. The town of Bingham, Utah, was eventually swallowed by the expanding man-made chasm, which would come to be known as "The Richest Hole on Earth" and the largest man-made excavation in the world. The mine was active when Smithson submitted his reclamation design and it remains so today.
"Bingham Canyon Mine was featured in the 1973 made-for-TV movie Birds of Prey, with protagonist helicopter pilot Harry Walker (played by David Janssen) piloting his Hughes 500 into the crater to track down three bank robbers and their female hostage in an Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama, which was hiding behind heavy mining machinery. It was also featured prominently in The Fundamentals of Caring. In the PC video game American Truck Simulator, players can simulate hauling cargo at the mine."
"The Bingham Canyon copper mine in Utah is the world's largest human-made excavation. Like most large open-pit mines, Bingham's walls are terraced to reduce landslide risk and enable heavy equipment to reach mineral-bearing rock. Vertical faces are called "batters," horizontal surfaces are "benches."
"Bingham Canyon is being continually excavated, with giant shovels the size of two-story houses loading material into behemoth dump trucks. Day-to-day changes are subtle, but from year to year the pit evolves dramatically," the storymaps.com says.
"The largest manmade excavation in the world, the Bingham Canyon Mine has been producing large amounts of copper since the early 1900s," the ScoutLife Magazine says.
"It’s half a mile deep and 2.5 miles wide, and it covers an estimated 2,200 acres. The mine was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1966."
"Bingham Canyon Mine, located near Salt Lake City, is the world’s deepest man-made open pit excavation. The mine is 2.75 miles (4,5km) across and 0.75 mile (1,2km) deep. Since mining operations started in 1906, Bingham Canyon Mine has been the granddaddy of all copper mines. When you’re talking about the actual size of the mine, Bingham Canyon is simply the largest copper mine in the USA. If the mine was a stadium, it could seat nine million people," the mpirecruitment.au says.
"Bingham Canyon is primarily a copper mine, but it has also yielded a wide range of byproduct metals. These include 620 tons of gold, 5,000 tons of silver, 276 tons of molybdenum and large amounts of platinum and palladium.
"The Kennecott mining company extracts daily approximately 450,000 tons of rock out of the mine. With these production statistics, it’s no wonder that the Bingham Canyon Mine has been nicknamed “the Richest Hole on Earth.” The value of metals produced yearly at Bingham Canyon is US$1.8 billion dollars."
"Standing at the overlook within the Bingham Canyon Mine, you can see, hear, and feel the breathtaking and awesome magnitude of the largest man-made excavation on earth," the Atlas Obscura says.
"While you watch the action in the mine, a descriptive narration recorded in several languages explains the operations.
"From the overlook, you can watch 240 and 320 ton capacity haulage trucks deliver copper ore to the in-pit crusher, where the material is reduced to the size of soccer balls before being loaded onto a five-mile conveyor that carries the ore to the Copperton Concentrator."
"Our Kennecott mine is a world-class, integrated copper mining operation located just outside Salt Lake City, Utah, in the United States. Kennecott has been mining and processing minerals from the rich ore body of the Bingham Canyon Mine since 1903, and today is one of the top producing mines in the world. Our operation includes a concentrator, smelter and refinery and tailings storage facility," the official website says.
"Our Kennecott mine has operated for 120 years, providing domestically-sourced copper to the United States and beyond. As we look towards the energy transition, Kennecott will continue to play an important role by responsibly mining and smelting this critical mineral for our electric vehicles, our renewable energy, and numerous other vital applications.
"The Visitor Experience is dedicated to educating the public about the key role Kennecott plays in modern life, safe mining practices, and responsible environmental stewardship. Learn about our history and see first-hand the gigantic scale of our operation, vehicles, and artifacts. Discover how ore gets processed and refined to become 99.99% copper, an essential element in today’s infrastructure, manufacturing, and technology."
Photos: Facebook/Rio Tinto Kennecott
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